E TREX Vista
 

Anyone here that can comment on this? I may be buying one.

I have had the low end yellow one (not the vista) for about 5 years and love it. It's a regular part of my cycling equipment.

I changed my mind to the Vista CX I think.

What exactly did it do as far as data? Did it show a map and a trail of your path? Thats the most important thing to me, and was it pretty acurate?

All it does is record where you've been, max speed, current speed, average, time, distance, stores waypoints, etc. the yellow one doesn't have any road maps, but I use mine for camping, cycling, and hiking, not for navigation to unfamiliar places.

The vista models do have maps/navigation.

The yellow one, when it has a good view of the sky is accurate to 12 feet or so. The vistas have WAAS, which is a terrestrial accuracy augmentation signal based on land transmitters, and they can be even more accurate.

The Vista Cx is a great unit for cycling. My unit is a Legend Cx which is exactly like the Vista Cx except it doesn't have a barometric altimeter and a magnetic compass. The Vista also has a elevation profile right in the unit of your ride or of the route you plan to take.

You'll love the number of stats it is able to hold.

Are you planning on buying maps for the unit?

I have the Legend, just picked it up on a whim last week. Reasoning was I like to go wander cycling out on the backroads, this would help me keep track of where I actually was.

I was't prepared to shell out $300+ yet on a gadget, especially one that you needed to then shell out another $75 for decent maps (the baselines show only primary roads). $120 was more palpable and a couple hours of bittorrent downloading had me all set up.

Its a fun little toy. Been to cold to really do any non-commuting biking but I've been able to dial in my cyclocomputers. And I've wander aimlessly about the neighborhood using the waypoint seeking function.

Maps? Dont know yet. I dont know if I will need them or not. Im still unsure just how good the maps are thats already in it. I will use it just for fun on trips on the road in a car, but I can usually get around pretty good with a paper map or Google Earth directions. I mainly want it for wandering around in the woods and fire roads (bike or hiking) and be able to look at the screen and see a plotted trail that shows exactly where Ive been and also way points are good to. I want speed, and altitude also. I also like the idea of seeing my altitude in a profile type graph. Storing all of this data on my computer is what I need to do to. So unless anyone sees anything I may be overlooking or confused about please let me know very soon as I plan to order the Vista CX in the next 24 hours. I really thank you all for the help so far. Theres just to many GPS units out there and they all seem to do different things.

I have an Etrex, not the Vista, but have never found a good way to attach it to the bike. Maybe I am out of good ideas.:(

How do you plan to mount it on your bike?

Hose clamp and old cell phone holster.

http://www.focushacks.com/photo/war-...07-06_2158.jpg

flair1111,

The unit will be fine for you. You can always decide to buy the maps later. If you would like, give me the name of a town or area you would like to see the basemap for and I can upload a snapshot of it here.

Here's a close up of how I strap my GPS around my headlight. Works great for me and it was the set up I did for my 2,000 mile tour last year. That's my old GPS.

http://server6.theimagehosting.com/i...020206 002.jpg

Hey, I just ordered the Vista CX from WalMart for $293 and it comes with a USB cable, bike mount, aand a few other things. I also get a $50 mail in rebate offer to.

Yes, Ild love to see a map my area. Its Fannin Georgia, or north Georgia right in the middle of the state on the Tennessee/Ga. state line if its hard to find. I cant wait to use mine. I plan on re-riding all of the places Ive been so far just so I can have data on it, and elevation profiles and such. thanks man.

In your opinion which is better? The 76CSx or the Vista CX? And why.

The reason I ask, is because for another 60 or dollars, I can get a bigger display by going with the 76. Or is it even worth it?

The 76CSx uses the exact same firmware and basemap as the Vista Cx.
It is a much larger with a larger screen. The size of the unit can be a plus or a minus.
It has the buttons right on the unit while the Etrex generally has them on the side.
The 76CSx I think comes with a 128mb micro-SD card while the Vista comes with a 64

But the big difference is that the 76CSx uses the brand new SIRF III chipset which is supposed to be much better in keeping a lock in dense environments Geocachers believe the 76CSx and it's very close cousin the 60CSx are the best units on the market.

For an extra 60 bucks..... I would get it although you won't go wrong with the Vista Cx either.

I couldn't find Fannin, GA on my GPS map nor on my Street Atlas program but figured that Blue Ridge, GA is the town. The only road the basemap shows within 15 miles is US 76. The basemap is just that, a very basic map.

In my dumb wisdom, I've lost where the program on my computer is to upload bitmaps from the Garmin unit so I apologize for a lack of a snap shot.

Found the Ximage software. Here are a few snapshots from the GPS

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/4286/fanningatu3.jpg
night time display

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/5...nninga5bx2.jpg
day time display

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/9...nninga7lt5.jpg
day time displayed, zoomed out to 8 mile scale

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/9...ninga10bp0.jpg
Zoomed in to half mile....

The basemap is really very very very basic.
I'll load up the maps for the area from MetroGuide and post them in a few minutes to show the difference.

Here are the maps with MetroGuide maps loaded in.

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/3...efanninfg1.jpg
at the 2 mile resolution. Notice it will show some more roads and the map of the lake is much more detailed.

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/7...oguide2om6.jpg
and at the .5 mile resolution.

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/8...oguide3fx2.jpg
And finally at 800 feet resolution.

The display for the 76CSx will be identical, just a larger screen

You can declutter the map if you want. At the .5 mile resolution with max resolution, it will show almost every street. Notice how that US 76 is now much more smooth and will be really close to accurate now.

i would buy the vista cx i have a legend and love it i am also thinking of ugrading to the vista

Yeah Blue Ridge is the town. Thanks for the help!

I'm assuming you have the Legend B&W.

I had the B&W Legend during my tour bike from SC to TX. It was a workhorse and never failed me during the trip. On a local ride, I crashed and my Legend B&W went flying into the road and other than a stratch on the screen, it still works good.

The only reason I didn't buy a Vista is that I don't have a purpose in a magnetic compass and a barometric altimeter so I saved about 50 bucks. The Legend B&W & Legend Cx still gives you those readings, but they are GPS based and you have to be moving in order for the GPS compass to work.

yaes it is a legend b&w i have droped mine as well still working fine

I've got the Vista CX and it's great. I have mounts on all 3 bikes and switch it between them. If you have road handlebars, you'll likely need the "Large Handlebar Mount" instead of the standard bike kit. The standard one is too small to fit.

I have the Legend Cx and love it. I didn't realize how much I would also use it off the bike. When I was deciding between the Legend and the Vista, the guy at REI told me that you often need to manually calibrate the altimeter on the Vista to keep it accurate. It wasn't worth it to me. Come to find out that the Legend shows elevation, they just don't advertise it because I guess it's not very accurate. You will definitely need maps. The base maps are so basic as to not really be useful. If you want streets other than interstates, the maps software is a must. The other great thing about this unit is the SD card. I upgraded mine to a 1 gig card and it holds maps for a large portion of the US and Canada. I have the garmin mount on the stem of my bike. It works very well.